Rodney King Dead at 47

Posted on Jun 17, 2012

Rodney King, the man whose beating by Los Angeles police officers sparked a violent, weeklong response from the city’s black community in April 1992, was found dead at the bottom of a pool Sunday morning.

It is unclear what happened in the moments immediately before King’s death. He was discovered by his fiancée, Cynthia Kelly.

At the Los Angeles Festival of Books this past April, King marked the 20th anniversary of the events that brought him notoriety. Of his beating, he said: “I was one of the lucky ones [to have survived],” adding, “It was a blessing the camera was there.”

CBS Los Angeles has released a radio interview with Rialto police Captain Randy De Anda, who says that King may have had some verbal contact with his fiancée, at which time she went outside and found him at the bottom of the pool.

“Rialto police officers responded to the location and removed him from inside of the pool and began CPR. The Rialto Fire Department paramedics responded and transported Mr. King to the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center where he was later pronounced dead at 6:11 a.m. this morning,” De Anda said.